


Underwater

by faerierequiem



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 19:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21307418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faerierequiem/pseuds/faerierequiem
Summary: Roah + "we were camping in the woods but now there’s a thunderstorm and i think we’re going to die"
Relationships: Noah Czerny & Ronan Lynch, Noah Czerny/Ronan Lynch
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Underwater

**Author's Note:**

> i have made the executive decision of posting up all the roah fics i've written that i haven't posted up on here before (because god does this beautiful ship need more fics). plus, evidently this was the first roah fic that i ever wrote, so i gotta. i hope you enjoy this 4+ years old fic!

Ronan stuck his head out the tent. “FUCK THE WEATHER!”

The rain pelted down on him as Ronan glared up at the cloudy sky. He couldn’t believe it. The _one_ time Gansey wasn’t around to nag and Parrish too busy to care, the _one_ time he and Noah decide to camp out in the woods, and it had to rain. What shitty luck. He let out a wordless shout before ducking back into the cover of the tent.

Noah tossed a chocolate bar at him. “Don’t anger the rain gods.”

With the hem of his shirt, Ronan wiped the rain off his face. He scowled in frustration. “What are we supposed to do now?”

Noah shrugged and his carefree attitude irritated Ronan even more. “We’ll just wait the rain out.”

“Might as well eat all the marshmallows while you’re at it,” Ronan said. He pointed to the bags of snacks they had torn through the supermarket for, throwing bags of chips and crackers and candy into the cart left-and-right, and bought.

“What?” Noah sat up, alarm crossing what had previously been a relaxed face. “But they’re for the s’mores!”

“Noah.” Ronan shook his head. “Do you really think we’ll be able to build a fire if all the branches and logs we find are going to be wet?”

Disbelief and then anguish replaced the alarm on Noah’s face. “B-But what’s camping without s’mores?” he stammered.

Before Ronan could even shrug helplessly, Noah’s eyes had narrowed and his mouth set. He moved forward pass Ronan and opened the tent flap. In a voice louder than Ronan had ever heard it, he yelled out, “FUCK THE WEATHER!”

Ronan burst out laughing. He was still laughing by the time Noah flopped back down in his spot on his sleeping bag and buried his head underneath his pillow. Finally, Ronan’s laughter subsided and he asked in amusement, “Sucks, doesn’t it?”

Noah’s reply was muffled underneath the pillow.

“What?” Ronan moved to sit beside him. “I can’t hear you.”

Noah removed the pillow, a frown on his face. “I said, ‘yeah, it sucks’.”

Ronan tipped the bags of marshmallows onto the ground and opened one. “Let’s see which one of us can stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth. Loser has to stay outside in the rain for five minutes.”

He expected Noah to protest, but Noah only sat up and narrowed his eyes. A faint smirk tugged at his lips. “Make it ten minutes.”

* * *

“Damn him.” Ronan shivered and glared in the direction of the tent. Ten minutes had sounded perfectly fine when he’d thought it’d be Noah suffering in the rain. With a huff, Ronan tore his gaze away from the tent and tried to keep himself from imagining Noah, dry and comfortable, inside it. He was probably stuffing his stupid mouth with more marshmallows.

Ronan walked around in circles for a moment, trying to build up warmth, before walking back up to the tent. “Noah!”

Noah didn’t reply.

Ronan knew Noah was messing with him, so he gritted his teeth and stayed silent until finally Noah called out from inside, his voice chipper and singsong, “What is it?”

“You better tell me when ten minutes is up!” Ronan threatened.

“Hey!” Noah sounded hurt. “I’m as honest as they come!”

Ronan grumbled under his breath, but his frustration had slipped away. He continued walking around in the rain, scuffing at the grass with his shoes and sticking out his hands to catch the raindrops.

From somewhere far away, a sound registered in his ears, but Ronan could not pinpoint where it was coming from. He listened closely. It was a low sound—and long. A sound that seemed to stretch out all around him. It almost—_nearly_—sounded like a moan.

His skin prickled and Ronan felt himself back up a step, back away from the dark unknown, back towards the tent.

That was when he looked up and saw it. From a distance, a humongous, dark shape seemed to swim through the cloudy, gray night sky. He stared. The shape twisted ever-so-slightly. Then, the skies boomed with thunder. At the sound of it, a jolt went through Ronan and he found himself fleeing back into the safety of the tent.

Noah stared up at him, confused at first, but then his mouth quirked and he raised an eyebrow in amusement. “You still have seven more minutes.”

Ronan didn’t reply. He scurried away from the entrance of the tent and moved to sit next to Noah. To hell with it. If he was going to die, he’d rather die in the close proximity of someone else. He still couldn’t believe what he’d seen. The thunder was explainable, but humongous, dark shapes moving in the sky was not natural.

He tried to steady his breathing and found himself with his eyes fixed on the entrance of the tent—as if that thing was somehow going to come down from the sky at any second and… He didn’t know what it would do and the not knowing scared him the most.

“Ronan?” Noah’s eyebrows furrowed. “You’re being really freaky.”

Ronan forced himself to look away from the entrance. “Shit, Noah. There was _something out there_.”

Thunder rumbled from above.

Noah glanced upwards and then back at Ronan. He shook his head. “Nice try, Ronan. Are you trying to scare me?” He gave Ronan’s shoulder a gentle shove, laughing a little. “I’m not falling for it again.”

“No, I’m serious!” Ronan insisted.

Noah shrugged. He scratched at his shoulder. The disbelief plain on his face. “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s what you said last time.”

Ronan grabbed him by the shoulders, knocking aside Noah’s scratching hand. “Noah, I. Am. Serious. There was some—” He struggled to explain. “Some big, giant, shadow thing in the sky and it was moving. _Moving slowly towards me. _And it was making this _sound_ like…like really low, awful crying!”

Noah stared at him and even to himself, Ronan knew how unbelievable he was sounding. He couldn’t even properly explain it for crying out.

He took his hands off from Noah’s shoulders. “Goddammit.” He scowled. “I’m not lying, Noah. I swear!”

Slowly, Noah nodded. His gaze was unwavering as he took Ronan in. “I believe you,” he said.

Ronan was at once simultaneously relieved and irked. Noah seemed to trust so blindly. Ronan admired that quality, but sometimes he wondered what harm it would do to Noah if he trusted someone who didn’t deserve it.

“Thanks,” he said.

Noah nodded again.

Thunder resounded from above, loud and quick. Ronan didn’t want to, but he found himself listening for that strange noise. To his relief, there was nothing but thunder and the sound of rain falling against the tent.

“You should change out of your clothes,” Noah said.

He was right. Ronan had forgotten about his clothes.

“I won’t look.” Noah turned his back to him and faced a corner.

Ronan smirked and stood up. “Well, that’s a first, you pervert.”

Noah sat with the bottoms of his feet against each other and he leaned forward until his face nearly touched them. “Takes one to know one,” he retorted. “At least I’m a flexible pervert.”

Ronan laughed and began to undress. The soaked fabric caused the clothes to stick and drag across his skin, making the process take more effort and time than it should have. At last, Ronan grunted as he pulled his shirt over his head and threw it to the ground. It landed with an audible plop.

He reached for his backpack and pulled out the clothes Noah had randomly shoved inside for him. “Wow. Nice selections, Czerny. I didn’t know my name was Dick Gansey.”

Noah was still in his weird yoga position and as he laughed, Ronan saw his back shake slightly. “You’re welcome,” he managed to say.

“I wonder how Gansey is able to live with himself,” Ronan joked. He wrinkled his nose at a white polo shirt, which he of course put on. “These are like granddad golfing clothes.”

Noah laughed harder, sitting back up and shaking his head. “Stop!”

Ronan picked up a pair of boxers and eyed them. “These are my underwear though, right?”

Noah made a noise of protest. “I wouldn’t go that far!”

“Just checking.” Ronan put on the pair of boxers and then one of Gansey’s flannel pajama pants. He couldn’t believe he was wearing this stuff. If only Gansey was here to see him now.

“Okay. You can turn around. My makeover is complete.”

Ronan struck a pose as Noah turned his head, but in the next moment, Noah had turned back around and was holding a hand to his mouth as he laughed.

Ronan adopted a horrible Valley girl accent. “Admit it, Nicole. I know you’re just jealous of how amazing I look.”

Noah laughed harder. “You’re right!”

Ronan grinned.

A single sound resounded through the air. It was the sound Ronan had heard before. He felt it reverberating through his bones like the aftermath of a booming bass and—_somehow_—the sound was coming out of him just as much as it was coming from outside of him. He fell to his knees. An odd, unfamiliar terror rose within him.

“Is that the sound you were talking about?” Noah had stopped laughing and was turned away from the corner, his eyes looking up as if he could see the sky through the tent.

Ronan stared at him. He looked so calm. How could he be so calm? “Yeah,” he answered and somehow he managed to sound blunt and unafraid. “That’s it.”

“Huh.” Noah titled his head. “It sounded like a whale song.”

Ronan snapped and moved to grab Noah by the arms. “Stop acting so calm about this! Are you an idiot?” He demanded. “Sounds like that don’t just happen every day! Are you aware that whatever thing is making that noise might _kill_ us?”

Thunder boomed as if in agreement with him.

Noah eyed him. “Who says this thing wants to kill us?” He asked.

Ronan let go of Noah. He couldn’t believe it. Why was Noah being so impossible? “You didn’t see how big that thing is,” he said, flatly. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Then, I’ll go check it out,” Noah said.

He made a move to get up, but Ronan pulled him back down. “God, Noah! This isn’t the time to be acting like a fucking hero!”

Noah opened his mouth to say something, but that was when the sound came back.

And this time it lasted.

Ronan leaned forward and squeezed his eyes shut. “Fuck. Make it stop!”

“It really does sound like a whale,” Noah said in an off-hand manner that sounded completely wrong.

“Shut up, Noah.” Ronan growled, but his voice wasn’t even a quarter of the strength he wanted it to be.

“Ronan.” Noah cupped his hands around Ronan’s ears. “_Listen_.”

Reluctantly, Ronan did.

Noah’s hands drowned out the world. The rain was made hollow and the awful sound seemed distant even as it got louder, closer. Ronan almost couldn’t bear it. This was something that was supposed to happen in his dreams. He hadn’t even done anything this time.

Noah lifted a hand slightly and whispered close to Ronan’s left ear, “Relax.”

“I can’t,” Ronan argued.

“Yes, you can.” Noah placed his hand back down again. His next words were muffled. “Imagine that you’re sitting at the bottom of the ocean.”

Ronan tried. He tried to imagine the coolness of water against his skin, tried to imagine that the rain was the ocean moving about, tried to imagine that sound coming from a lonesome whale…

And somehow he succeeded. He _was_ sitting at the bottom of the ocean. The rain _was_ the moving of a huge body of water. The sound above _was_ the song of a whale. And knowing that, the sound became less frightening and something more. Something that hurt a bit and made him feel whole. The feeling came and went.

The sound had stopped.

Ronan opened his eyes as Noah removed his hands from his ears. He stared at nothing in particular, at a spot behind Noah. Questions came to mind, but he found that he didn’t need answers. He looked up at Noah.

Noah was already looking at him. Something passed through them, a silent acknowledge of what had just happened, and then Noah grabbed a bag of chips and popped it open.

**Author's Note:**

> If you tumblr, check out the fic here: https://cosmiqueqi.tumblr.com/post/130295845401/roah-we-were-camping-in-the-woods-but-now ~ and reblog/like!


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